Larry Thompson’s family has been growing strawberries in Boring, Oregon since 1947. “My mom used to say that she came to Oregon to raise strawberries and kids,” Thompson says. “In 1947, five acres was all you needed to make a living.”

But times have changed, and the influx of imported strawberries makes it challenging for berry farmers to turn a profit. “You can’t raise them for profits anymore in my opinion, and that is a direct result of imports,” he says.

Last year, more than $220 million worth of strawberries were imported into the United States,¹ compared to slightly more than $1.5 million worth of berries grown domestically.² Even though Oregon is known for its high quality berries, supermarkets across the United States usually offer fresh and frozen imports from Mexico, Chile, Turkey, Poland, and other foreign countries.

Imported strawberries are much cheaper than Oregon berries because they are produced at a significantly lower cost. In Mexico, farm workers can be paid as little as one tenth of the average U.S. worker,³ whereas in Oregon, they must receive at least the state’s minimum wage of $7.80 per hour.

The high volume of cheaper imports on the market eventually slashed the prices that Thompson and other domestic producers could get from processors to unprofitable levels.

To cope with this change in the market, Thompson started selling directly to the public. Now his strawberries are available only at farm stands, farmers’ markets, or through U-pick days, which are times when consumers pay to go into the fields to pick a certain amount of strawberries. He says that some customers come expecting the cheap imported berry prices, but they are often surprised by the high quality of farm-fresh Oregon produce, and this is what brings them back.

To continue growing strawberries today, “you have to love it,” says Thompson, who now has to work seven days a week for a total of 96 hours to keep up with consumer demand.

Oregonians are lucky that Thompson does love it, because many other farmers have been forced to surrender growing these unprofitable crops. The amount of strawberries grown in the state has been decreasing yearly and hit a historic low in 2007.⁴

If this trend continues, the strawberry farming tradition that has existed in Oregon since 1870 may end, and Oregonians could lose all access to the local berries that even scientists have confirmed are “Sweeter, redder, simply better.” ⁵

Footnotes
¹ Trade Query – Strawberries Fr[esh] or Fr[o]z[en] imported, 1/2006-12/2006, Foreign Agriculture Service, USDA.
² “Crop Values Annual Summary,” National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA, 2/15/2007.
³ “Immigration, Integration, and Agriculture.” Rural Migration News. 6(1), January 1999.
⁴ Trevison, Catherine. “Berry Growers Worry Industry May Turn Sour.” The Oregonian, Portland, May 31, 2007.
⁵ “Oregon Strawberries: Sweeter, Redder, Simply Better: Study Shows Oregon Strawberries Really are Sweeter, Redder, Simply Better.” Oregon Strawberry Commission.